Dortmund took a swipe at United by underlining he was joining the "fifth-place English team last season", but Mkhitaryan is confident in helping his new club challenge for Premier League glory once more.

"It's a very good opportunity to play for Manchester after Borussia - Manchester is one of the biggest clubs in the world," he said ahead of facing his former club in the unusual surroundings of Shanghai on Friday.

"I am very happy to be here and I am very happy to play for this team.

"I will try to do my best to help the team win the games and for the new season we are going to try to do everything to win titles.

"Of course it will be difficult but let's hope to have good preparation and then we will see."